Sunday, May 31, 2009

Some Choice Sophie Shots

I'm enjoying the life of SAHM now.. Or at least, I will be for the next few days!! After that, it would not be "enjoy" anymore while having to attend to double the whines and wails! Haha.. Just thinking of going back to those days of sleepless nights and 2 hourly feeds and the routine of breastfeeding-pumping-breastfeeding is making me wonder how to cope!! Oops!!

But while I am still resting and enjoying, here are some choice Sophie shots:

Stylo-Milo Mouse!! Baby sunglasses from GAP nia!
Who also happens to be a vain-pot mouse.. She loves to see herself in the mirror and kiss herself in the mirror too.. *faint*.. where did she learn such things from!!
Bookworm tendencies! Like mummy!

Awaiting Zoe, 39w6d / 032: The Mischief Managed Grin

Alright! Zoe is made it past my last day of work, haha. So baby, you can come out anytime now yeah? In fact, please come out naturally by 8th of June so that I will not need to have an elective C-section.

This is as I am attempting a VBAC, I cannot have induction AT ALL, so my contractions must start naturally. If my water breaks and there are no contractions, it will be a C-section. If no water breaks and no contractions, also must be a C-section.

Argh!! I don't want another C-section, because of
1. the recovery time
2. I will not be able to go near Sophie for ages - she is just too active!
3. it would mean I have no choice but to have a C-section for 3rd child in future (most gynaes in SG will not allow you to even try for natural labour with 2 C-section history). Yes, I am thinking about 3rd child before 2nd one is even out!! LOL!! But I am aiming for 2011.. need to have a break!

Please pray for me:
(a) Labour will start naturally before 8th June (1 week after my EDD)
(b) Contractions will start first and have a good regular pattern before my water breaks
(c) There would be no indications that require emergency C-section (eg. meconium in the waters, irregular heart-rate of Zoe)
(d) Dilation will be fast and smooth
(e) Zoe will be engaged and in the right position for delivery
(f) Fast and easy pushing stage

Having said these, I am much less kancheong and impatient-feeling than I was with S. Maybe I am more emotionally prepared this time around. =)

So, to entertain myself, besides spending time packing up Sophie's clothes, my scrapping space, and (hopefully eventually) the rest of the stuff cluttering up my room, I'll blog more! And scrap more! Hehe. =)

Trying to use up the scrap papers I have left from Hello Sunshine kit with which I did the "Tickle" LO. My scrapping bad habit (besides hoarding too much stash LOL) is that I CANNOT leave things unfinished, it irritates me!! Unfinished packs of embellishments, scrap papers of which I do not use up every little bit, incomplete LO.. argh!! So having cut up most of the papers for the Tickle LO, I felt that I have to finish using them up for this next one. Its a very different feel though. Less "flowy" though I don't know why.

032: The Mischief Managed Grin - an MR09 submission.

Papers: Base paper from Melissa Frances (oops cannot remember the paper name), Cosmo Cricket's Hello Sunshine: Picnic, Blowing Bubbles and Hopscotch.
Alphas: Making Memories Tiny Alphas in white, Doodlebug Loopy Love alphas in red.
Embellies: Prima Felt strip (the "photo strip"), Maya Road Sheers Journalling, felt die-cut from Daiso (yes! Really! 10 pieces for $2.. wow!!), ghost arrow edged in green from Heidi Swapp, stickers and tab from October Afternoon Cherry Hill, "pretty please" from Ormulu@Etsy from SL's July 2008 kit, black chipboard bracket and dots from Scenic Route, stitches rub-on from Daisy D.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Who me??

LOTW #29 @ MWL! Whoohoo!

(beyond my wildest dreams)

One last hurrah

Managed to meet up with Tiffany for a nice lunch and chat before going to be stuck at home for the next-as-far-as-I-can-conceive future!

(And also a very-much-need-to-diet-and-lose-weight future! Haha!)

We ate at Relish at Cluny Court. The burgers and desserts were most heavenly. A pity I did not take any photos of the food =( didn't bring camera along.

Menu:
Starters - Onion soup for me, spinach salad with gorgonzola for Tiffany.
Main - Beef burger with sarawak pepper sauce with a mountain of fries on the side (mine), beef relish with mashed potatoes for Tiff. Kind of like beef stew.
Dessert - Chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream for me, pandan-infused panna cotta with gula melaka (OMG TO DIE FOR!!)

2 course set lunch is $22 and 3 course is $26. Ladies, go on Wednesdays and get your dessert free!

Because its Tiffany's birthday next week, I made her a birthday notebook in glorious PINK. Her favourite colour. KQ and I also bought her lots of scrapping supplies. Heh Heh. Hint to both, come to my place for a crop party over my maternity leave yeah! =)

Album: Maya Road Chipboard tab book (used only 1/2 cos it was too thick!)
Papers: Pale pink, dark pink and yellow cardstocks from DCWV; patterned papers from DCWV Spring 2009 stack.
Alphas: American Crafts Poolside vinyl thickers in Grapefruit
Embellishments: Chipboard journalling tags from Heather Bailey for Autumn Leaves; plastic and chipboard flower, bird and dragonfly shapes from American Crafts Fieldhouse; yellow chipboard flowers and swirls from Heidi Swapp; blue decorative tape from Prima; pink furry ribbon from Spotlight, butterflies plastic pieces from Scarlet Lime Aug 2008 kit.
Others: Edged the pages with the blue decorative tape from Prima, rub-on tape from Popular (3 different patterns) and brown tape from Heidi Swapp.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Awaiting Zoe: 031, I do

Forced to home-bounded-ness and inactivity while awaiting Zoe, I decided to complete Colour Challenge 3 from Eye for Design. Tough one.. colours were chocolate brown, antique brown, red, yellow and cream. Totally not my usual palette!

Here is the result:

This is a super back-dated photo and I think only the 2nd LO I have scrapped with only my face in it. Its got to be so though cos this was the only photo I could find that suit the colour scheme! Which is one of the problems I face when scrapping in the Eye for Design style. Its great to draw insipration from magazines, adverts etc but I find those hard to match to the photos I have / intend to scrap. My usual previous style was to choose the photo first and then match the embellishments / colour theme to the shot. Now, it is the other way around.. Hmm.. pros and cons.

An interesting element (or at least I tried to be interesting) was the houndstooth circle in the top right hand corner.. if you look at the closeup in the 2nd photo, you would see that there is a layer of red felt underneath. Those are the leftover thickers from the Playroom font, which I stuck onto the back of the circle, trimmed and flipped over. So there is a hint of red there but does not overwhelm the 2 bears.

Papers: Dream Street Papers - Enchanted - Once Upon a Time (brown background), KI Memories Lace Cardstock - Hangman in Taxi colour, Sassafras Lass Life is Beautiful - Woodland Whimsy Rose Thicket (rose cutouts), SEI Windsor Farleigh (brown and white flocked cutouts), K & Company Que Sera Mat Pad.
Alphas: American Crafts Playroom felt thickers in red, Sprinkles vinyl thickers in yellow, Making Memories Tiny Alphas in black and white.
Embellishments: Pearl gems from KaiserCraft, American Crafts foam shapes (the 2 bears) - I forgot which collection, foam heart from OurCraftPlace, yellow chipboard hearts from Heidi Swapp, Imaginisce Chantilly Charms in Entwined, Hamblys' Screen Prints in ATC Patchwork black (the houndstooth), and Decor Notes white (fork, spoon and knife artisan shape).

Friday, May 22, 2009

Yes'a'not?? Isen it?

Like with S, I am having cramps and funny feelings in my tummy now (at 38wks 4d). For S, I think I had a few days worth of crampy episodes before the real thing.

Unfortunately, with S I was already off work, but I am working all the way with Z. So I left work early today in a panic thinking that it was time when I started having cramps and feeling nauseous, only to have the cramps more-or-less disappear after a few hours of resting in bed. They are still there now but nowhere near regular. =(

This on-again-off-again thing is going to start getting really irritating especially as it affects my ability to work properly! Practically bulldozing my way out of school today and explaining to people whom I've to last-minute co-opt into helping me finish stuff, ONLY TO have nothing happen at all. Argh!

I know I want Z to be punctual (and not early) but I am kind of regretting that thought now. How ideal it would be if there were no pre-labour symptoms and she would just come out once and for all!!

Funnily enough, the uncertainty reminds me of my ex-Math teacher's favourite phrase..
"Yes'a'not?? Isen it??"
it sent me into hysterical fits of mental giggles. What a thing to remember now!! And how crazily apt. Hahahahaha.

*slaps self*

I feel EXTREMELY STUPID for all the things I've forgotten to do!! =(

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Head over for inspiration and a RAK chance!

At Dorcas': Label Tulip Feb kit up as a RAK.. Whoohoo!!

Z updates: 38+1

At 38 wks and 1 day, Z gave us all a shock by jumping in estimated weight by 500grams over 6 days!! Eeek!! She is now measuring 3.3kg.. erps.. any much bigger and she will have to come out by C-sec rather than natural =(

She has also not engaged yet.. argh!! Everyone, PRAY!! I don't want another C-section!! =(

Sunday, May 17, 2009

029: Jie Mei & 030: Tickle

029: Jie Mei

Its always been very hard to capture S in a moment of stillness. But I especially wanted to get a shot of her and my tummy. This was finally managed with the mobilization of G's "big camera" because our little point-and-shoot is certainly not fast enough for Miss Mouse!

This LO was done using colour inspiration from Eye for Design Challenge #1. The 5 colours are dark purple, light purple, red, pale creamy-yellow, and charcoal grey. I tweaked it a little because I felt charcoal grey was too dark and muted the tone of the entire LO. Its replaced by a yellowish-grey tone. And the creamy-yellow got intensified to pale yellow per se. I kept the purples and red though as I really love these colours. Yummy!

Also liked the rich fabric, cool metallic and warm wood accents within the inspiration page and I tried to incorporate that into the LO. This took me 5 hours.. Whew!! Lucky I did not try to incorporate PAINTS into this.. like the paints in the inspiration page.. hurhur.





Papers: Basic Grey Aged and Confused Vagabond (grey), Basic Grey Wisteria Jardin (dark pirple), random DCWV paper (light purple), random flocked paper from Spotlight (red swirly flower and bird cutouts), specialty paper from Scarlet Lime's July kit (red and white cutouts). Photo mat from K & Company Que Sera Matpad. The second artisan shape in cream is actually the reverse of the red photo mat.
Alphas: American Crafts Vinyl Thickers Poolside in Powder (oh how I love this font!)
Embellishments: Rub-on tape by Daisy D's, "our beautiful moments" rub on by Fancy Pants, wooden flourish and flower by KaiserCraft, Buzz and Bloom Blame It On the Sunshine Large Mirror (flower and centerpiece), brown velvet flower by Creative Imaginations, metal flower with pearl brad by KCK, purple velvet ruched flower by Maya Road, Dewdrops by The Robin's Nest in Sunflower, brown lace trim by Fancy Pants, random brown organza.
Others: Eyelets from Making Memories punched in a large heart shape. This took AGES!! Reminder to self - Don't try this again =(


030: Tickle

Tickle is a series of Sophie's facial expressions when G is tickling her. I wish I can capture her infectious laughter that goes along with the grin but too bad, cannot.. So only the cute grin is immortalised!

Tickle is done for Eye for Design Colour Challenge 2. Colours are red, yellow, green, cream and grey. I am not really big on grey so I modified that to black instead. The colour combi immediately brought to mind Cosmo Cricket's Hello Sunshine range! So I went to dig out my pp from that range and used them up. It is a much simpler LO compared to 029 though, as there are only 3 pp in use on this one and no eyelets (argh!! phew!!)

What struck me about the challenge inspiration page were the colourful swivel sticks (er.. I am not sure what you call them) in a clear dish. So I attempted to replicate that using a transparent backing and thread with buttons in the center of the LO. Although there was nothing round in the inspiration page, I just felt round would be good for this LO and proceeded to went crazy with circles. All the circles are painstaking cutouts ok!! The original pp is..
.. compare it to the final product..

The circles in the top right hand corner were cut out one by one and overlaid on one another.. the flourish plus circles along the right side and top of the paper are one entire section of the original pp.
Some popping up is done with foam dots to give a bit of texture.. else, quite flat..

This is the attempt to "pay homage" to the swivel sticks.. I used a transparent CD-like thing to represent the glass dish and the threads are like the individual sticks.. with the buttons and paper cut-outs being the "heads" of the sticks. Aiyah, very hard to describe lah. =(

Papers: Cosmo Cricket's Hello Sunshine Clover and Blowing Bubbles, Cosmo Cricket Jack's World Wake Up.
Alphas: Making Memories Tiny Alphas in black, American Crafts Thickers Foam Daiquiri in white, Doodlebug Designs Loopy Love in red. Title alphas are mounted on beige cardstock.
Embellishments: Almost all entirely cutouts from the Blowing Bubbles paper except for a few buttons. Red, orange and green tags from Scarlet Lime August 2008 kit, cream embroidery thread, transparent CD-like thing dug up from G's table, Fig 1,2, and 3 labels from Daisy D's Favourite Photos cardstock die-cuts.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

37 weeks 2 days

Z is now 37+2.. she has hit full term le. But I'm definitely hoping she does not come out early.. Argh!! I have stuff to do ALL THE WAY to the last day of school.. so Z.. Pls be punctual yeah.
(Don't learn about "early is on time, on time is late, late is very late" till MUCH later yeah.)

Zoe updates -
Weight: 2.83kg (phew)
Position: Partially engaged =(
Squirmy-ness: Aplenty

Me updates:
Tummy rashes: check
Face rashes: check
Water retention: check
Insomnia: check
Elephant sized: check

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Question with Prizes!!

Question 1: Is the red route shorter, or the blue route shorter?


Prize for guessing RED ROUTE:
Very good!! You can go and work for taxi company and write letters to answer customers complaints by telling them that its justifiable to take the red route. And tell the customer that the fare difference is due to the heavy traffic conditions on the road, which is SUCH logical justification for a taxi ride taken on 11.30pm on a Sunday night.

Prize for guessing BLUE ROUTE:
You will get to wait 1.5 weeks for an answer to your complaint email and after that be told that the taxi driver's error is only in not asking which route to take first before proceeding on the journey. No, he is not attempting to profiteer from taking a longer route! Of course not!

GRRRR!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother's Day 2009


Reminds me of S curled up asleep against me. Loveliest feeling in the world.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

028: No Greater Love

LO done for Mother's Day for my MIL who has been helping us so much to take care of Sophie. Well, since S cannot say Happy Mothers Day yet, I'll say it on her behalf..
(whoops I better not let my own mother see this as she will be jealous =P)

This is also fulfilling Moments Recorded Challenge 8:

Using ONLY the following, you are to create your own designs / patterns:
Rub Ons

Stamps

Cardstock Stickers / Element Stickers / Stickers Book


You are only allow to use only
ONE cardstock and NO pattern paper are allowed for this month challenge. You are not able to use chipboard stickers or any other form of chipboard elements. However, you are able to use AC Chipboard Thickers or Chipboard alpha for title purpose. The only allowance for chipboards will be for title purpose and nothing else.

That's certainly most challenging for someone like me who never fails to "jia yan jia cu" to everything I do!!
So, to spark off ideas, I took out all my stamps, rubons and inks.. and lo and behold the result:

Did alot of distressing and glimmer misting on this LO which I have not done for long.. simply because it is quite "dirty" and time-consuming. But given the constraints, cannot help it!! I need to satisfy my "spirit" of "jia yan jia cu". =P

Ingredients List:
Cardstock: DCWV
Rub-Ons: Fancy Pants Designs (Write Now, Fancy-Free Free Spirit), and My Minds Eye (Laundry Line Coastal Comfort)
Stamps:
Bottom left - 7 Gypsies Nottinghill - rotated the same stamp 90 degrees 4x for the larger pattern, one set of 4 rotations in Versafine Vintage Sepia and 2nd set of 4 rotations (slightly displaced from the first set) in Versafine Lagoon. Did the same for top right hand corner
Photo borders - Heidi Swapp Love Corners
Cardstock sticker: BoBunny A Gift of Love - left hand side scalloped border. Thats it, only 1 cardstock sticker! LOL! I have very few of "flat" embellishments as my usual style is super "pop-up-py".
Chipboard Alphas: Heidi Swapp She chipboard alphas in Whisper Blue.
Others:
- Tim Holtz Flourish Mask used to create the design on right hand side of page. Did the masking twice, first with Glimmer Mist in Robin's Egg Blue, then shifted the mask to a slightly different angle and re-did the masking with Hero Arts Memories Soft Sand stamp pad.
- Edge distressing and inking of cardstock done with Tim Holtz distress inks in Tea Dye and Orange Marmalade; edge distressing and inking of photos with only Orange Marmalade.
- Inked the chipboard alphas as well with Soft Sand colour. A very pale brown, very good for giving this aged-vintage effect.

This is my first time trying out the blue-brown-orange colour scheme and I must say I do quite like it. But there are very few photos I have that can fit into this colour range.. this series is fine because the predominant photo colours are white, grey and pale blue. Oh well.. at least good that I gave it a try.. =)

Sophie's 1st Birthday Mini Album

I've finally completed the mini album for Sophie's 1st birthday party. Unfortunately, of all the photos, I could not find the one that is taken with daddy, myself and S in the picture. =( So of all the shots, that one is not included inside.. Boohoo.. =(

Here is the shot.. just imagine that is in the mini album ok??


OK, now for the album itself. Colour tones are yellow, green, blue and pink.. Super pastel and super departure from my usual. Was trying to match up her party colours (blue and pink) and *finally* use finish my SL August kit (which is predominantly yellow and green). Hurhur. And I am proud to say I have done it (well almost anyway) - can start on destructing the next kit in line liaoz.

Cover page and inside of cover page

First acrylic page - this was really hard because the designs will be viewed from both the front and the back!! Gosh!! I kept on forgetting that at first and end up "jia yan jia cu" on both sides to cover the "ugly" parts of the embellies. Lol.

The two facing pages. The "vines" on the acrylic page are a cutout from Tinkering Ink paper, supposed to be continuous with the vines on the inside of cover page.

Back of the first acrylic page. Used it to showcase the handmade door gift for the guests. Lucky i had some left to spare!

Showcasing her birthday cupcakes. Nope, I didn't make them!! I ordered them from cupcake-momma.net and I am so glad I did, they were lovely and the hit of the party. So much easier to serve too than a traditional cake as guests can just take one along on their way out.

Two facing pages

Papa and Mouse - mouse is busy trying to grab at the lighted candle! Sam Seng queen!

Facing page with peek-a-boo window that failed miserably.. LOL.

Closed and opened peek-a-boo window.. oops.. doesn't really work hor =(

The second acrylic page meant to be seen through the peek-a-boo window

Back of second acrylic page

Second peek-a-boo to see the third acrylic page. I am getting better at this as the album progresses.. but its the last acrylic page liao haha. The back of the second peek-a-boo is also much nicer and cleaner-cut looking that the first.

Back and front of 3rd and last acrylic page. This is my favourite page of all! I especially like how the embellies on the back cover page of the album can be seen through the acrylic and complements really well with the design on the front of the acrylic.

Front and back of back cover page.


Ingredients list:
Papers: (SL Aug) - Tinkering Ink Beau Jardin Meadow, (SL Aug) - Luxe Designs Flip Flop Merry Go Round, Scenic Route Lynden Dahlia Street, My Little Yellow Bicycle Sharon Ann Baby Safari Girl Plaid / Yellow Floral, KI Memories Lace Cardstock (a range so old I can't even remember the name)!
Alphabets: Heidi Swapp She chipboard alphabet in Whisper Blue, Heidi Swapp Rhyme ghost alphabet in pink lowercase, American Crafts Poolside vinyl thickers in Grapefeuit, American Crafts Remarks cardstock stickers in Serendipity Neutral 2, Making Memories tiny alphas in black.
Embellishments: (SL Aug) American Crafts Vera Accent Vinyl American Crafts, (SL Aug) Chatterbox Happy Day Dimensional Chipboard stickers (oh how I love this collection!), (SL Aug) sticker labels from twogirlzstuff.etsy.com, (SL Aug) Prima clear tape in Blue Ribbon, Maya Road chipboard butterfly and heart, yellow blings from KaiserCraft, pink frilly trim from Spotlight and green ribbon from AMK, American Crafts MyHouse Paper Everyday - Flowers, held together by brads from Basic Grey Sultry collection, American Crafts Fieldhouse Plastic and Chipboard, various assorted Hamblys (Frame Wallpaper in yellow, Brocade in dark pink, and Vintage Patchwork in bright pink), Buzz and Bloom acrylic Totally Too Tweet in Grape (small), Queen & Co Felt Fusion (Floral Pink 1.6" and Flowers Pink 2.7")